Houston goes Hollywood for a lesson in history

When Ray Forquer began teaching history to fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders at Houston Elementary School in 1967, he had an inspiration.
”I decided to make it more real for them by making a film,” Forquer, now a well-known artist, said last week. “They took every book on the Civil War out of the library, and their parents used the books for information to make them costumes. The movie was 10 minutes long, and it won an award in Harrisburg for state and local history.”
The boys in the Mystery Photo are shown carrying a wounded soldier into a hospital, actually the basement of the old Houston grade school.
”It was called ‘A Time of Remembrance,’ about an old man who goes into a cemetery and starts to remember,” Forquer said.
“All elementary students had parts in the movie that was produced and directed by Mr. Forquer,” wrote Rich Diesel, owner of Diesel’s Heating and Air in Houston, in an email. “Other battle scenes were filmed in the fields behind the Arrowhead Service station and behind Houston Post Office. I am the Union soldier with the black hat and the stripes on my jacket sleeve. All of the uniforms were handmade by our mothers.”
Clark Griffith was taken aback when he saw his picture on the front page of Monday’s newspaper. “My sister found the picture that was in the newspaper at the time,” Griffith, 60, said. He was able to identify all the boys for us from the photo caption, which also mentioned that the film would be shown on Feb. 2, 1968. Griffith, who retired after 35 years working in coal mines, still lives in Houston and is still good friends with Robert Stiller.
Washington resident Randy Glunt had a starring role in the film and said he still has a copy of it.
So does Forquer, who spent 31 years in the Chartiers-Houston School District, much of those years as art teacher at the high school.
As an artist, Forquer has remained very involved in history. His paintings of regional historical events hang in museums, and prints of those paintings are displayed across the nation.
Look for another Mystery Photo in next Monday’s Observer-Reporter.